Three Retail Roadshow
Three Retail Roadshow
a breakdown of the event
The Three Retail Roadshow is an annual two-day event encompassing an expo, conference and after party. For the second year running Irish agency, CSL Events, was managing the project, working hand in hand with the superb Three experience team.
The brief was to make it a high end and modern event. Planning began a healthy nine months ahead of the event date and all seemed under control until they were let down by their venue. With six weeks to go, they needed to find somewhere to host this hotly anticipated event.
They decided to split the event into three venues for the separate elements and changed their search to focus close to the accommodation they had locked in, at the Tower Hotel at London Bridge.
Three and the CSL Events team felt an enormous sense of relief when they made their first call to Tobacco Dock and found that, while we had another event in the space they needed immediately before, we could fit the conference element of their event into our schedule. They found another venue for the expo which would take place the day before and took the after-party to a boat venue launching from just outside their hotel.
When Three and CSL Events team came to visit the venue in person they were put immediately at ease with quick, clear responses to all their questions and loved the spaces that were on offer. The venue itself was completely on brand for Three and their vision for the event, while the ability to easily walk to and from their booked accommodation at London Bridge was another major plus.
Facilities and facts
Delighted clients
Though they had been let down by their previous venue, the organisers said 'We soon stopped referring to Tobacco Dock as Plan B and re-christened it Plan A+'.
Full Event Management
With such a short lead time, it made sense for our clients to use our Full Event Management package.
A seamless experience
Our great relationships with industry leading service partners meant planning a premium event was all in a day's work for the team.
Making it work
With such a short lead time and turnaround time between events (the day before, the Great Gallery was in use with a large-scale, multi-space conference), there were necessary constraints in terms of how the event could fit into the space. While we would usually recommend a day build ahead of tenancy, in this case the team worked through the night to get the staging into place. Furniture was delivered at 6am, branding went in shortly after that and rehearsals couldn’t take place until shortly before the event opened. We ran this on a Full Event Management basis, making it more straightforward for our clients and helping to keep the planning efficient, which was crucial in an event with such a short lead time.
Our experienced team and service partners threw themselves into getting the event ready, working closely with the client’s agency to ensure everything was to plan. While it was a test of nerves for the organisers, ultimately the event came together extremely well.
The expo element of the event had taken place the day before at a venue in Canary Wharf and on the day of the conference attendees took the scenic walk through St. Katharine Docks from the Tower Hotel, arriving at Tobacco Dock ready to get stuck into the content from speakers. All guests were excited for the day ahead and warmly greeted with sustaining treats from the Tobacco Dock Food team.
To add a sense of journey and cohesion to the overall event, the theme of 007 (or rather 003 to fit in with the company’s branding!) was used throughout, taking the attendees on a ‘mission’ through London. Anna Valley’s audio visual capability was seamless both in the set build turnaround and the last minute rehearsals. With such a varied day of presentations, quizzes and keynotes the AV team were fully focused and ready to support all the changes.
Three Retail Roadshow conference layout
The end results
The event organisers praised the Tobacco Dock and service partners teams’ depth of expertise and phenomenal communication in getting the event off the ground to a high standard. The experienced Tobacco Dock team gave the organisers a (very welcome!) sense of calm and confidence that they were in safe hands. After being let down at the last minute by their previous venue, we were delighted to have been able to help them achieve their objectives in a low-stress and flexible way.
Delegates loved the experience and the client and sponsor were both pleased with the outcomes. Something the clients took care to mention was the collaborative and can-do approach of both the Tobacco Dock team and those of our service partners.
Tobacco Dock is a wonderfully unique and impressive venue
with a variety of very contemporary but historic spaces to allow any brand event to shine. We couldn't rate the team there highly enough - they were phenomenal. Three were in very safe hands and the event was a huge success - we will be back!